Taylor Swift Among 265 Newcomers on Forbes' Billionaires List for 2024
With Taylor Swift captivating the audience through 2023, it comes as no surprise that she has now made it to Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s richest people. In 2023, the 12-time Grammy Awards winner reportedly made more than $780 million on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, according to Forbes.
"It’s been an amazing year for the world’s richest people, with more billionaires around the world than ever before," Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ wealth editor told The Guardian. "A record-breaking 14 percent of billionaires have 12-figure fortunes. Even during times of financial uncertainty for many, the super-rich continue to thrive."
According to the publication, Swift didn't have to rely on "lucrative side hustles" to secure the 2,545 rank in the Billionaires' list. She is perhaps one of the very few who reached this success solely by songwriting and performing.
Furthermore, Swift's concert film became the highest-grossing concert film in North America, bringing an estimated $95 million to $97 million in ticket sales during the opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, as per Axios.
The class of billionaires for 2024 was 255% richer than a decade ago, meaning only 0.5% of the world's 2,781 billionaires hold 14% of all billionaire wealth. This year, the Forbes list featured 265 newcomers, with Swift being one of them.
The "Blank Space" singer reached the milestone after the success of her tour which fetched her more than $1.1 billion. According to Ticketmaster, the popstar sold over 2 million tickets for her Eras Tour in 2022, setting a record for the most tickets sold by any artist in a single day.
"It is utterly unconscionable that at a time when masses of the world’s population are living in dire poverty, a few individuals are allowed to amass staggering wealth," Daisy Pearson, of the campaign group Global Justice Now, said.
"This is only possible through exploitation, and their monopolization of wealth and resources further allows them to amass huge power and influence over decisions that affect our everyday lives. Enough is enough – we should be regulating these barons out of existence."
The 2022 World Inequality Report brought to light a stark reality: the top 10 percent of the global population currently commands 52 percent of all income, leaving a mere 8.5 percent for the poorest half.
"The billionaire list is essentially an annual calculation of how much of the wealth created by the global economy is captured by a tiny caste of oligarchs rather than being used to benefit humanity as a whole. It should be the most urgent mission of the coming decades to spread this wealth more evenly, proportionately, and efficiently," said Luke Hildyard, the executive director of the High Pay Centre.
The latest iteration of this list showcases Bernard Arnault as the wealthiest individual globally, with a net worth of $230 billion as the primary owner of the Luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. Following closely is Elon Musk, the Founder and CEO of SpaceX, with a net worth of $195 billion.